wesnoth/MANUAL

/* $Id$ */

THE BATTLE FOR WESNOTH MANUAL

If you are new to Battle for Wesnoth you might want to read the
GettingStarted (http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/GettingStarted) guide first.


CONTROLS

F1             The Battle for Wesnoth Help
Arrow keys     Scroll
Left click     Select unit, move unit
Right click    Main menu, cancel action
Middle click   Center on pointer location
Escape         Exit game, exit menu, cancel message
ctrl-r         Recruit unit
ctrl-alt-r     Repeat last recruit
alt-r          Recall unit
u              Undo last move (only deterministic moves can be undone)
r              Redo move
m              Message another player (in multiplayer)
M              Message your allies (in multiplayer)
alt-m          Message everyone in the game (in multiplayer)
n              Cycle through units that have movement left
N              Cycle through units that have movement left, in reverse order
space          End unit turn and cycle to next unit that has movement left
ctrl-space     End this player's turn
shift-space    Hold unit position; skip this unit when cycling through units
ctrl-v         Show enemy moves (where the enemy can move next turn)
ctrl-b         Show potential enemy moves, if your units were not on the map
ctrl-f         Toggle full screen/windowed mode
ctrl-a         Toggle accelerated game mode
ctrl-s         Save game
ctrl-o         Load game

/              Search for a label or unit
t              Continue interrupted unit move
z              Zoom in
x              Zoom out
c              Reset zoom to default
ctrl-n         Rename unit
1-7            Show how far currently selected unit can move in that many turns
l              Move to leader unit
d              Describe current unit
ctrl-g         Toggle grid
S              Update shroud now
D              Delay shroud updates
alt-l          Attach a text label to a terrain hex
ctrl-c         Clear labels
alt-s          Show status table
ctrl-m         Toggle muting of game sounds
ctrl-j         Show scenario objectives
s              Show statistics
alt-u          Show unit list
alt-c          View chat log
:              Command mode, see http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/CommandMode

For Mac OS X, the Cmd key is used instead of Ctrl, and Opt is used
instead of Alt.


ORBS

On the top of the energy bar shown next to each unit of yours is an orb.
This orb is:

  * green if you control the unit and it hasn't moved this turn,
  * yellow if you control the unit and it has moved this turn, but could
    still move further or attack,
  * red if you control the unit, but it has used all its movement this turn, or
  * blue if the unit is an ally you do not control.

Enemy units have no orb on the top of their energy bar.


DESCRIPTION

The game takes place over a series of battles, or scenarios.  Each
scenario pits your troops against the troops of one or more adversaries.
Each side begins with one leader in their keep.


GOLD

Each side is given some amount of gold to begin with, and receives 2
gold pieces per turn, plus 1 more gold piece for every village that side
controls.

Each unit also has an upkeep cost.  The upkeep cost is generally equal to
the level of the unit, unless the unit has the Loyal trait (see below).
Units that are not recalled or recruited - ie. that lead the side or
join the side voluntarily - usually have the Loyal trait.  Upkeep is
only paid if the total upkeep of a side's units is greater than the
number of villages that side controls.  Upkeep paid is the difference
between the number of villages and the upkeep cost.

So, the formula for determining the income per turn is

  2 + villages - maximum(0,upkeep - villages)

where upkeep is equal to the sum of the levels of all your non-loyal units.


RECRUITING AND RECALLING

Units may be recruited with gold, as long as the leader is on a keep,
and there is at least one vacant castle hex in the castle the leader is
in.  Right-click in the empty hex and select Recruit to recruit new
units from the list that is presented.  The cost to Recruit depends on
the unit, but is usually between 10 and 20 gold.

After you complete a scenario, all surviving units will be available to
you in the next scenario.  Right-click and select Recall to recall units
from previous scenarios.  Recalling costs 20 pieces of gold.  A Recalled
unit retains its previous Level, Experience Points, and (sometimes) any
magic items acquired, but will arrive with full hitpoints.

You are not able to move or attack with a unit on the turn you recruit
or recall that unit.


UNIT SPECIALTIES

Unit specialties are described under Unit Description in-game.


TRAITS

Units have traits which reflect aspects of their character.
Traits are assigned randomly to units when they are created.
Most units receive two traits.  The possible traits are as follows:

 Strong       does 1 extra damage per strike in melee, and has 1 extra hitpoint
 Quick        has one extra movement point, but 10% fewer hitpoints
 Resilient    increases hitpoints by 10% and adds 3 hitpoints
 Intelligent  requires 20% less experience to advance a level (not Trolls)

There are also some traits that are not assigned randomly:

 Loyal        has zero upkeep cost
 Dextrous     does 1 extra damage per strike in ranged combat (Elves only)
 Undead       immune to poison (Undead only)


MOVING

When a unit is clicked on, all the places it can move to on the current
turn are lit up, while everywhere it can't move is marked in grey.  You
can then click on the hex you want it to move to.  Moving onto a village
that is neutral or owned by an enemy will take ownership of it.  If you
select a destination which is beyond reach in the current turn, the unit
will enter 'goto-mode' and continue moving towards that destination in
subsequent turns.  You can easily undo goto movements in the beginning
of your turn; goto can be broken by selecting the unit and choosing a
new destination.

You may not move through hexes adjacent to enemy units (their Zone of
Control) without stopping.  However, level 0 units have no Zone of
Control.


FIGHTING

If you move next to an enemy unit, you may attack it.  Click on your
unit that is next to an enemy unit, and click on the enemy you want to
attack.  Every unit has one or more weapons it can attack with.  Some
weapons, such as swords, are melee weapons, and some weapons, such as
bows, are ranged weapons.

If you attack with a melee weapon, the enemy you attack will be able to
strike back at you with its melee weapon.  If you attack with a ranged
weapon, the enemy will be able to attack back with its ranged weapon, if
it has one.

Different types of attacks do different amounts of damage, and a certain
number of strikes may be made with each weapon.  For instance, an Elvish
Fighter does 5 points of damage with its sword every time it hits, and
can strike 4 blows with the sword in one exchange.  This is generally
written as 5-4, meaning 5 damage per hit, and 4 strikes.

Every unit has a chance of being hit based on the terrain it is in.  For
instance, units in castles and villages have a lower chance of being
hit, and Elves in forest have a low chance of being hit.  To see a
unit's defense rating (ie. chance not to be hit) in terrain, click on
the unit, and then mouse over the terrain you're interested in, and the
defense rating will be displayed as a percentage value in the status
pane, as well as shown over the terrain hex.


ALIGNMENT

Every unit has an alignment: lawful, neutral, or chaotic.  Alignment
affects how units perform at different times of day.  Neutral units are
unaffected by the time of day.  Lawful units do more damage during the
day and less at night.  Chaotic units do more damage at night and less
during the day.

The two "day" and "night" phases are differentiated as Morning,
Afternoon and First Watch, Second Watch, by the positions of the sun and
moon in the time of day graphic.

The following table shows the effects of different times of the day on
the damage dealt by lawful and chaotic units:

 | turn |  day-phase             |  lawful |  chaotic |
 ------------------------------------------------------
 |  1   |  dawn                  |    -    |    -     |
 |  2   |  day (Morning)         |   +25%  |   -25%   |
 |  3   |  day (Afternoon)       |   +25%  |   -25%   |
 |  4   |  dusk                  |    -    |    -     |
 |  5   |  night (First Watch)   |   -25%  |   +25%   |
 |  6   |  night (Second Watch)  |   -25%  |   +25%   |

For example: consider a fight between a Lawful and a Chaotic unit when
both have a base damage of 12.  At dawn and dusk, both will do 12 points
of damage if they hit.  During Morning or Afternoon, the Lawful unit
will do (12 * 1.25) or 15 points, while the Chaotic unit will do (12 *
0.75) or 9 points.  During First or Second Watch, the Lawful unit would
do 9 points compared to the Chaotic unit's 15.

If an equivalent Neutral unit were fighting, it would always do 12
points of damage regardless of the time of day.


HEALING

Injured units in villages will recover 8 hitpoints every turn.  Injured
units that are adjacent to units with the 'heal' abilities
will also heal.  A unit that does not move or fight during a turn is
'resting' and will recover an additional 2 hitpoints.

A unit with the 'heals' ability will heal adjacent allied units at the
beginning of the healer's turn.  Poisoned units will have their poison
damage stopped by the healer, instead of being healed.

A unit with the 'cures' ability will remove poison from a unit.
Usually a unit with 'cures' ability has 'heals' as well, but a unit
will be cured of poison instead of healed.

No unit can be healed by more than one thing at a time: the effects are not
cumulative. (except for 'resting')  The most powerful healing method is always
selected.  For example, a unit standing in a village gains no additional
benefit from a healer standing next to it if the healer does less than
8 hitpoints healing.  A unit standing next to three healers will only use the
most powerful healer.

For more information see the in-game help.


EXPERIENCE

Units are awarded experience for fighting.  After obtaining enough
experience, they will advance a level and become more powerful.  The
amount of experience gained depends on the level of the enemy unit and
the outcome of the battle: if a unit kills its opponent, it receives 8
experience points per level of the enemy (4 if the enemy is level 0),
while units that survive a battle without killing their opponents are
awarded 1 experience point per level of the enemy.  In other words:

| enemy level | kill bonus | fighting bonus |
---------------------------------------------
| 0           | 4          | 0              |
| 1           | 8          | 1              |
| 2           | 16         | 2              |
| 3           | 24         | 3              |
| 4           | 32         | 4              |
| 5           | 40         | 5              |
| 6           | 48         | 6              |


MULTIPLAYER

You can host a multiplayer game with your client or connect to the
wesnoth game server and setup your game there.  If you host a game with
your client, other players need to be able to connect to port 15000 of
your computer using TCP.  If you are behind a firewall and want to host
a game, you will probably need to change your firewall settings to allow
incoming connections to port 15000, and to tell your firewall to forward
such traffic to the machine hosting the game.  You should not need to
make firewall changes to join games hosted on a public server or by
someone else.

Public servers:

  server.wesnoth.org        most recent release of the game
  devsrv.wesnoth.org        up-to-date SVN version of the game

Additional servers are listed at http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/MultiplayerServers

Setting up a multiplayer game

  Step 1: select multiplayer from main screen and choose to either:
    a) join official server and create game,
    b) join any other server or game hosted by another player,
    c) select to host game on your client,
    d) create a multiplayer game on your own computer as a hotseat game, or
    e) play against the computer.

  Step 2: select map and configure game settings (fog of war, shroud,
  gold per village).

  Step 3: configure players (teams/alliances, starting gold, faction)
  and then wait for all players set to 'network player' to join the
  game.  You will see "network player" replaced with their nicknames as
  they join.

  Step 4: click [I'm Ready].


ADD-ON SERVER

You can fetch additional add-ons (user made campaigns, eras, etc.) by
selecting 'Get Add-ons' from the title screen.  This will attempt to make a
TCP connection to port 15003 of the add-on server (campaigns.wesnoth.org)
so you need to ensure your firewall allows this.  The add-ons are contributed
by users and not all will work properly on the current release of the game --
check the forums at http://forum.wesnoth.org if you are having problems.


OTHER RESOURCES

In-game Help is available in scenarios, press the Help hotkey or select
Help from the menu.  The overall homepage of the project is at
http://www.wesnoth.org/ and this links to many other pages related to
the game.  Of these, our wiki at http://wiki.wesnoth.org/ contains
contributed walkthroughs and tips for playing the game, the unit
advancement tree, information about making your own scenarios and
campaigns, how to contribute as a developer or a translator, and much
more.  You can also join us to chat on IRC at irc.wesnoth.org in channel
#wesnoth or join our forum community at http://forum.wesnoth.org/ where
you can discuss the game with over 4000 forum members.  The forums also
contain a searchable archive of tens of thousands of posts, spanning
over several years -- an invaluable source of information.